In Theaters: The Prestige

[Matthew]

Over the opening scenes of the movie The Prestige, Cutter(Michael Caine) narrates a description of "Every great magic trick." Cutter is an engineer that makes the wonderments and slights-of-hand happen, arranges for the special hiding places and the mechanics of a trick. He says a great trick:

consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't.

Enter Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). These are two young apprentice magicians working as audience shills in a stage show worked by another magician, a highlight of which is a "woman tied in a tank of water" trick done with Angier's new bride, Julia McCullough(Piper Perabo). Cutter is the behind-the-scenes manager for the show, and tries to teach Borden and Angier something about the dedication required to be a magician, as well as dispensing other advice, particularly admonishing Borden about the knot he uses when he binds Julia's wrists for the water-tank trick.

The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary.

Well, some ordinary things happen along the way, too, but in particularly awful fashion. After a series of horrid events that destroy their friendship, the two magicians strike out on their own: Cutter helping Angier as "The Great D'Anton" and Borden setting up as "The Professor." They interfere with each other's shows dressed in disguise, and queering the pitches to embarrass each other: in the process, Borden loses two fingertips and Angier breaks a leg and gains a permanent limp. The eventual centerpiece of this long-running battle is "The Transported Man:" a truly wondrous trick Borden invents. Angier, with the help of a body double, replicates the trick, briefly, but is certain that Borden is doing it another way. He blackmails Borden into giving him a clue: The cypher key to the encryption Borden has written his diary in: a diary that Angier has managed to steal, a diary full of secrets and hints.

Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before.

And I'm not going to spoil the prestige of The Prestige for you. I will comment on a few more things. There are women in the lives of these men, but their love lives take back seats to their obsessions with each other, with their hatred for each other, and their desire to top each other's work: they are these obsessions, more than anything else, and these obsessions of theirs lead them both to the most extraordinary of actions and blood-curdling decisions; answers to the questions of "how far will you go for your Art?" and "How far will you go for revenge?"

The story itself is told in a series of nested flashbacks which may be distracting, at first, but it makes me wish to see it again, to catch the clues as the two magicians chase each other and seek each other's secrets over the course of five years or so, from the late 1890s through the turn of the twentieth century. See it, for the miracles and monstrosities, the wonder and horror. AMAZING movie.

Also? David Bowie was born to play Nikola Tesla.

[Taste In Men]

Sorry Matthew, but I have to admit, this movie made me wish I had my $9.00 back. It's hard to criticize this movie properly without giving away any spoilers, so I'll try to be as discrete as possible.

I found that the movie went around and around in circles, without a proper climax or progression of storyline. Maybe it would have been more logical with better directing and a better script. I was also disappointed in the lack of effort Scarlette Johansson put forth in her role. It was almost as if she rolled out of bed and said, "Oh shit, I have to be on set in 15 minutes and I'm so hungover." Now, I understand that behaviour in "actors" like Paris Hilton, but not a well respected woman in her field. It would have only been fair for Johansson to try to save the already weak charecter she had, and not act as if she was only on set for the paycheck.
Christian Bale was decent, as always, but he is a safe actor and I can't say I ever saw him in a role that he wasn't suited in. (well, with the exception of Batman)
However, I did think the movie could have seen more of his eccentric behavior to further develope the psychology of the charecter(s), and not just use the ending as a crutch to not practice charecter development.
Hugh Jackman was obviously casted because of his appeal with the ladies.
I was also a bit annoyed that David Bowie, once again, got his hands on a role he was so obviously not suited for. Sure, he can be a good actor when he's in the proper role, but his British accent and gentle demeanor in no way mimics that of a Serbian genius with OCD and a slight dislike of people. Besides, I would have rather seen a more detailed and accurate account of Tesla's life in the form of an indepedent film, and not on a large budget fictitious production.

Because the film does center on Tesla's inventions and his time spent in Colorado, they could have borrowed more from his real and theoretical inventions and not dumbed it down for today's movie go-er. I found the invention used in the movie to be completely idiotic and useless, since there is no way electricity could have produced what the ending claimed it did. If they were going to use Science in the film, they should have used within the laws of Science, not only would it have made the film interesting, but they could have easily displayed one of Tesla's real theories, and even introduced the power of photographic memory.

Unfortunately, because of all the errors they made on Nikola Tesla's life and inventions the ending left me thinking "Wait. What? That isn't possible!" and not, "This is an amazing film dealing with the beginning of Science fiction and the Victorian mindset." It was definitely a brain tease.

[Matthew]

tasteinmen said:

Sorry Matthew, but I have to admit, this movie made me wish I had my $9.00 back. It's hard to criticize this movie properly without giving away any spoilers, so I'll try to be as discrete as possible.

I found that the movie went around and around in circles, without a proper climax or progression of storyline. Maybe it would have been more logical with better directing and a better script. I was also disappointed in the lack of effort Scarlette Johansson put forth in her role. It was almost as if she rolled out of bed and said, "Oh shit, I have to be on set in 15 minutes and I'm so hungover." Now, I understand that behaviour in "actors" like Paris Hilton, but not a well respected woman in her field. It would have only been fair for Johansson to try to save the already weak charecter she had, and not act as if she was only on set for the paycheck.
Christian Bale was decent, as always, but he is a safe actor and I can't say I ever saw him in a role that he wasn't suited in. (well, with the exception of Batman)
However, I did think the movie could have seen more of his eccentric behavior to further develope the psychology of the charecter(s), and not just use the ending as a crutch to not practice charecter development.
Hugh Jackman was obviously casted because of his appeal with the ladies.
I was also a bit annoyed that David Bowie, once again, got his hands on a role he was so obviously not suited for. Sure, he can be a good actor when he's in the proper role, but his British accent and gentle demeanor in no way mimics that of a Serbian genius with OCD and a slight dislike of people. Besides, I would have rather seen a more detailed and accurate account of Tesla's life in the form of an indepedent film, and not on a large budget fictitious production.

Because the film does center on Tesla's inventions and his time spent in Colorado, they could have borrowed more from his real and theoretical inventions and not dumbed it down for today's movie go-er. I found the invention used in the movie to be completely idiotic and useless, since there is no way electricity could have produced what the ending claimed it did. If they were going to use Science in the film, they should have used within the laws of Science, not only would it have made the film interesting, but they could have easily displayed one of Tesla's real theories, and even introduced the power of photographic memory.

Unfortunately, because of all the errors they made on Nikola Tesla's life and inventions the ending left me thinking "Wait. What? That isn't possible!" and not, "This is an amazing film dealing with the beginning of Science fiction and the Victorian mindset." It was definitely a brain tease.

I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy the movie, TIM.

Couple of things:
1. ALL of the inventions and peculiarities (with the exception of the apparatus that worked Angier's "Transported man" are taken from eyewitness accounts of Tesla's experiments. Since (as you pointed out) he had a photographic memory, he rarely kept notes: we're lucky enough as it is that we have the wonders of AC electricity.

2. As I said to my friend Sarah once about Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, It's not a documentary.

Tesla served as a plot device in The Prestige more than anything else: he wasn't as fully fleshed out as he could have been: The Man who could have owned the World if he hadn't generously given up his royalties in the early AC utility companies was a hell of a complex man, and this movie's portrayal of him owes as much to Lovecraft's short story "Nyarlahotep" (it seems to me) as it does to anything else. Quite simplified, in some ways, but mostly mysterious and occulted.

I'd LOVE to see a movie about Tesla's life. Personally, I want it to wait until we figure out how the hell he DID all the things he did, first (I'm convinced that Tesla invented the MASER sixty to seventy years before it and its cousin the LASER were "invented") but we got tasty hints of him in this film: his eccentricity, his permenant feud with that necessary bastard Edison, the true pall of fear he cast over people with the wonder and terror of his inventions... but he was only in this movie for fifteen minutes, max.

And as for his electrical apparatus he sold Angier? With all the freaky crap that Tesla is KNOWN to have done, well, the movie (and the book) needed a wizard who could do real magic, and Nikola is as close as one is going to get to that at that time period. T. A. Edison would never have worked in the role.

I'd also disagree about Bale: I thought he was great in the Batman reboot: I've been following him since Empire of the Sun and haven't seen a turkey by him, yet. I liked Jackman's performance, as well, even if he was exceedingly pretty. My biggest dificulty was in scenes where I couldn't tell one from t'other until they spoke and we got Borden's British accent or Jackman's American one. (similar bone structure combined with the fact that I'm lousy with faces)

I could not agree with you MORE about Scarlett Johanssen's character, but none of the female characters were fully fleshed out in this movie: it focused on Borden, Angier, their obsession with each other, and, to a lesser extent, Cutter and his "mentor" role. Most of the other characters, even the love interests, were more props and set pieces, true. But to me, this lack did not detract from the movie being a chilling piece of Lovecraftian horror, and a wonderful statement on Obsession and Revenge.

That may be why it seemed to you that the film was going around in circles: it, well, was. Angier's and Borden's mutual obsessions with each other never led them away from their mutual need to destroy each other: they were trapped by their old hatreds and their desires to show each other up.

I'm a big ol' Tesla fan, myself, and signed petitions to get the incorrectly labled AC generator on display at the Smithsonian reattributed to him, rather than to Edison (the elephant-killing bastard), and have read several works on his life. I loved Bowie as Tesla: he conveyed the fervent intensity and his obsession with his research quite well: and his misanthropy was there as well.

I guess our mileage varried. C'est la vie.

[Spaced Out Looney]

I love period films and non-linear narratives and Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan movies, so the Prestige had this going for it. Scarlett Johansson was lovely as ever and the cast as a whole was great. I had no idea that Telsa was played by David Bowie, not that I've seen many pictures of him.

I had a bit of difficulty following the dialogue, largely because of the accents and I think the sound system at the theater was a little off. I definitely need to watch at least 2-3 more times to get everything.

Question: Was Angier's double also played by Hugh Jackman? I thought he was, but the camera never lingered too long on him that I wasn't sure. It would have been kind of cool if they had actually found a Hugh Jackman double for the role, but I think its far more likely that they would have had HJ play both.

I figured out that Angier intended to frame Borden for his murder before the reveal, but figured that Angier actually intended to commit suicide.

I also sort of guessed that Borden had a twin and that the assistant guy was it, but didn't realize how far the illusion went. And that was a damn fine make up job; when you see him up close at the prison in the end, it doesn't even look like Christian Bale.

I can't help thinking about how well Borden and Angiers could have worked together, producing a great mix of talent and presentation, but instead they devoted their energies to constantly backstabbing and playing deadly tricks on each other. I watched the X-Files episode with the illusionists last week, that also had Ricky Jay and the two have this similar themes of rivalry and schemes and playing tricks on others.

Looking back, I thought the scene where Borden is talking to Sarah's nephew about the disappearing bird in a cage trick was some brilliant foreshadowing. "Where's his brother?" the little boy asks and Borden says that "he's good." And it turns out that the bird in the cage was killed by trick. ieee.

[Spaced Out Looney]

The Prestige in 15 Minutes.